Tetragrammaton

For other uses, see Tetragrammaton (disambiguation).

"YHWH" redirects here. For the historic Iron Age deity, see Yahweh. For the modern Jewish conception of God, see God in Judaism and God in Abrahamic religions.

The Tetragrammaton in Phoenician (12th century BCE to 150 BCE), Paleo-Hebrew (10th century BCE to 135 CE), and square Hebrew (3rd century BCE to present) scripts

The Tetragrammaton (/ˌtɛtrəˈɡræmətɒn/ or Tetragram, from Greek τετραγράμματον, meaning "[consisting of] four letters"), is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה, the name of the biblical God of Israel. The four letters, read from right to left, are yodh, he, waw and he. While there is no consensus about the structure and etymology of the name, "the form Yahweh is now accepted almost universally".

The books of the Torah and the rest of the Hebrew Bible except Esther, Ecclesiastes, and (with a possible instance in verse 8:6) the Song of Songs contain this Hebrew name. Observant Jews and those who follow Talmudic Jewish traditions do not pronounce יהוה nor do they read aloud proposed transcription forms such as Yahweh or Yehovah; instead they replace it with a different term, whether in addressing or referring to the God of Israel. Common substitutions in Hebrew are Adonai ("My Lord"), HaShem ("The Name") and hakadosh baruch hu ("The Holy One, Blessed Be He").

Four letters

The letters, properly read from right to left (in Biblical Hebrew), are:

Hebrew	Letter name	Pronunciation
י	Yod	[j]
ה	He	[h]
ו	Waw	[w], or placeholder for "O"/"U" vowel (see mater lectionis)
ה	He	[h] (or often a silent letter at the end of a word)

Modern scholars generally agree that YHWH is derived from the Hebrew triconsonantal root היה (h-y-h), “to be, become, come to pass”, an archaic form of which is הוה (h-w-h), with a third person masculine y- prefix, equivalent to English “he”. They connect it to Exodus 3:14, where the divinity who spoke with Moses responds to a question about his name by declaring: אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה (Ehyeh asher ehyeh), "I am that I am" or "I will be what I will be" (in Biblical Hebrew, the form of the verb here is not associated with any particular English tense).

Vocalisation

YHWH and Hebrew script

Main article: Mater lectionis

See also: Biblical Hebrew orthography, Hebrew diacritics, Tiberian vocalization, and Niqqud

Transcription of the divine name as ΙΑΩ in the 1st-century BCE Septuagint manuscript 4Q120

The letters YHWH are consonants. In unpointed Biblical Hebrew, most vowels are not written and the rest are written only ambiguously, as certain consonants can double as vowel markers (similar to the Latin use of V to indicate both U and V). These are referred to as matres lectionis ("mothers of reading"). Therefore, in general, it is difficult to deduce how a word is pronounced only from its spelling, and the Tetragrammaton is a particular example: two of its letters can serve as vowels, and two are vocalic place-holders, which are not pronounced.

The original consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible was, several centuries later, provided with vowel marks by the Masoretes to assist reading. In places that the consonants of the text to be read (the qere) differed from the consonants of the written text (the ketiv), they wrote the qere in the margin as a note showing what was to be read. In such a case the vowels of the qere were written on the ketiv. For a few frequent words, the marginal note was omitted: these are called qere perpetuum.

One of the frequent cases was the Tetragrammaton, which according to later Jewish practices should not be pronounced but read as "Adonai" ("My Lord"), or, if the previous or next word already was Adonai, as "Elohim" ("God"). Writing the vowel diacritics of these two words on the consonants YHVH produces יְהֹוָה‎ and יֱהֹוִה‎‎ respectively, non-words that would spell "Yehovah" and "Yehovih" respectively.

The oldest complete or nearly complete manuscripts of the Masoretic Text with Tiberian vocalisation, such as the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex, both of the 10th or 11th century, mostly write יְהוָה (yhwah), with no pointing on the first h. It could be because the o diacritic point plays no useful role in distinguishing between Adonai and Elohim and so is redundant, or it could point to the qere being Shema, which is Aramaic for "the Name".

Uncertainty still in the first half of the 1800s

Theoretical Hebrew punctuation for Yahweh, if this were used instead of those of Adonai and Elohim

Tetragrammaton (with the vowel points for Adonai) on a Wittenberg University debate lectern

In his German-language Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, the first edition of which was published in sections between 1810 and 1812 and the third edition in 1828, in the 1833 edition in Latin, and in the revised German text of 1834 the Hebrew scholar Wilhelm Gesenius (1786–1842), while recognising that the vowels attached to the Tetragrammaton in the Masoretic text are those of "Adonai" and "Elohim", very briefly summarised the arguments in support of different views on the original pronunciation.

For an English translation of Gesenius' 'Lexicon see that by Robinson

Most commentators, Genesius said, favoured Yahwoh, in line with the statement by several ancient writers that the Jews called their God ΙΑΩ. This form has the same vowel structure as in the Hebrew names of Jacob and Pharaoh.

Others favoured Yahweh on the basis of the account by Theodoret (c. 393 – c. 458/466) of the Samaritan pronunciation as Ιαβε, of the theophoric name suffixes יָה֫וּ /jahu/ and יָהּ /jah/, and the abbreviated name YH /jah/.

Pronunciation according to the Masoretic vowel-points was defended by Michaëlis. (In his 1828 book, Gesenius attributed this view also to Reland and Simonis, but removed their names in 1833 and 1834 and placed Reland as a supporter instead of Yahweh.) Supporters of this view, Genesius said, were not altogether without means of defending their position, since the theophoric name prefixes יְהוֹ /jeho/ and יו /jo/ could most easily be explained as derived from "Jehovah".

In 1833 and 1834 Gesenius referred to the 1707 book in which Adriaan Reland reprinted the views of several other scholars debating the reasons for and against the pronunciation as "Yahweh" or as "Jehovah", to enable readers to make their own judgement. By then the majority view, shared by Reland, was that the pronunciation as Yahweh (for which the Hebrew punctuation would be יַהְוֶה‎: see image to the right) more accurately represents how the Tetragrammaton was pronounced than the usual Masoretic punctuation "יְהֹוָה‎", from which the English transliteration Jehovah has been derived. (A less usual Masoretic punctuation, "יֱהֹוִה‎", is used where the synagogue reader speaks "Elohim", as he speaks "Adonai" where the more usual punctuation appears.)

Neither in the 1833 and 1834 books did Gesenius explicitly give his personal opinion, but he maintained that the Tetragrammaton name is derived from the verb הוה (to be). He continued his studies and in the vast Thesaurus philologicus criticus linguae Hebraeae et Chaldaeae Veteris Testamenti, on which he had only reached the second-last letter of the Hebrew alphabet at the time of his death, he rejected the interpretation of the name as "Yahwoh" and declared firmly in favour of "Yahweh", from which the theophoric name prefixes יְהוֹ and יו can be derived also. This view is found also in later editions of his Lexicon.

Yahweh

Main article: Yahweh

Robert Alter states that, in spite of the uncertainties that exist, there is now strong scholarly consensus that the original pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton is Yahweh (יַהְוֶה): "The strong consensus of biblical scholarship is that the original pronunciation of the name YHWH that God goes on to use in verse 15 was Yahweh." R. R. Reno agrees that, when in the late first millennium Jewish scholars inserted indications of vowels into the Hebrew Bible, they signalled that what was pronounced was "Adonai" (Lord); non-Jews later combined the vowels of Adonai with the consonants of the Tetragrammaton and invented the name "Jehovah", and "modern scholars have developed their own, more plausible speculations, and a consensus has emerged that vocalizes the divine name as "Yahweh" (YaHWeH). But at the end of the day, we really don't know, and in any event, the ancient imperative of spiritual modesty remains compelling." Paul Joüon and Takamitsu Muraoka state: "The Qre is יְהֹוָה the Lord, whilst the Ktiv is probably יַהְוֶה (according to ancient witnesses)", and they add: "Note 1: In our translations, we have used Yahweh, a form widely accepted by scholars, instead of the traditional Jehovah" John E. McKenna recognizes both the absence of certainty and the presence of scholarly consensus and calls "Jehovah" a "nonsense word". Mark P. Arnold remarks that certain conclusions drawn from the pronunciation of YHWH as "Yahweh" would be valid even if the scholarly consensus were not correct.

Textual evidence

Non-biblical sources

The Mesha Stele bears the earliest known reference (840 BCE) to the Israelite God Yahweh.

The oldest known inscription of the Tetragrammaton dates to 840 BCE: the Mesha Stele mentions the Israelite god Yahweh.

Of the same century are two pottery sherds found at Kuntillet Ajrud with inscriptions mentioning "Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah" and "Yahweh of Teman and his Asherah". and a tomb inscription at Khirbet el-Qom that also mentions Yahweh. on ostraca from the collections of Shlomo Moussaieff (VII BCE), Slightly later (VII century BCE) are the two tiny silver amulet scrolls found at Ketef Hinnom that mention Yahweh, while a wall inscription with mention of Yahweh in a tomb at Khirbet Beit Lei is dated to the late VI century.

YHWH in one of the Lachish letters

Yahweh is mentioned also in the Lachish letters (587 BCE) and the slightly earlier Tel Arad ostraca, and on a stone from Mount Gerizim (III or beginning of II century BCE).

Similar theonyms

An Egyptian document of Amenhotep III (1402-1363 BCE) discovered in the Temple of Amon in Soleb speaks of the land of the Shasu of yhw³ (read as: ja-h-wi or ja-h-wa) and a later copy from the time of Ramesses II (1279-1213) in West Amara associates the Shasu nomads with S-rr, interpreted as Mount Seir, spoken of in some texts as where Yahweh comes from. Frank Moore Cross says: "It must be emphasized that the Amorite verbal form is of interest only in attempting to reconstruct the proto-Hebrew or South Canaanite verbal form used in the name Yahweh. We should argue vigorously against attempts to take Amorite yuhwi and yahu as divine epithets."

The Elephantine papyri, written in Aramaic mention the god YHW or YHH. One ostracon with YH is thought to have lost the final letter of an original YHW.

In one fragmentary Septuagint manuscript the Hebrew Tetragrammaton is transcribed as Ἰαῶ (Iao). This form of the name of the Jewish god appears also in Diodorus Siculus and Marcus Terentius Varro], however, Philo of Byblos' discussion on Varro and Hernnios makes a neoplatonic and Phoenician connection.

Magical papyri

Representations of the Tetragrammaton name or combinations inspired by it in languages such as Greek and Coptic. giving some indication of its pronunciation, occur as names of powerful agents in Jewish magical papyri found in Egypt. There is a single instance of the heptagram ιαωουηε, while Iave and Iαβα Yaba occurs frequently. Among the Jews in the Second Temple Period magical amulets became very popular. The tetragram appeared on them, in the form of J, JJ, JJJ, JJJJ or JH, JHW, as the word 'HJH', and in a long series of permutations: ', H, W and J.

Yawe is found in an Ethiopian Christian list of magical names of Jesus, purporting to have been taught by him to his disciples.

Hebrew Bible

The Tetragrammaton in the Hebrew Bible

In the Hebrew Bible, the Tetragrammaton occurs 6828 times, as can be seen in Kittel's Biblia Hebraica and the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. In addition, the marginal notes or masorah indicate that in another 134 places, where the received text has the word Adonai, an earlier text had the Tetragrammaton. which would add up to 142 additional occurrences. Even in the Dead Sea Scrolls practice varied with regard to use of the Tetragrammaton. According to Brown–Driver–Briggs, יְהֹוָה‎ (Qr אֲדֹנָי‎) occurs 6,518 times, and יֱהֹוִה‎ (Qr אֱלֹהִים‎) 305 times in the Masoretic Text.

The first appearance of the Tetragrammaton in the Hebrew Bible is in the Book of Genesis 2:4. The only books it does not appear in are Ecclesiastes, the Book of Esther, and Song of Songs.

In the Book of Esther the Tetragrammaton does not appear, but it has been distinguished acrostic-wise in the initial or last letters of four consecutive words, as indicated in Est 7:5 by writing the four letters in red in at least three ancient Hebrew manuscripts.

The short form Yah (a digrammaton) "occurs 50 times if the phrase hallellu-Yah is included": 43 times in the Psalms, once in Exodus 15:2; 17:16; Isaiah 12:2; 26:4, and twice in Isaiah 38:11. It also appears in the Greek phrase Ἁλληλουϊά (Alleluia, Hallelujah) in Revelation 19:1–6.

Other short forms are found as a component of theophoric Hebrew names in the Bible: jô- or jehô- (29 names) and -jāhû or -jāh (127 jnames). A form of jāhû/jehô appears in the name Elioenai (Elj(eh)oenai) in 1Ch 3:23–24; 4:36; 7:8; Ezr 22:22, 27; Neh 12:41.

The following graph shows the absolute number of occurrences of the Tetragrammaton (6828 in all) in the books in the Masoretic Text, without relation to the length of the books.

Leningrad Codex

Six Hebrew spellings of the Tetragrammaton are found in the Leningrad Codex of 1008–1010, as shown below. The entries in the Close Transcription column are not intended to indicate how the name was intended to be pronounced by the Masoretes, but only how the word would be pronounced if read without qere perpetuum.

Chapter and verse	Hebrew spelling	Close transcription	Ref.	Explanation
Genesis 2:4	יְהוָה‎	Yǝhwāh		This is the first occurrence of the Tetragrammaton in the Hebrew Bible and shows the most common set of vowels used in the Masoretic text. It is the same as the form used in Genesis 3:14 below, but with the dot (holam) on the first he left out, because it is a little redundant.
Genesis 3:14	יְהֹוָה‎	Yǝhōwāh		This is a set of vowels used rarely in the Masoretic text, and are essentially the vowels from Adonai (with the hataf patakh reverting to its natural state as a shewa).
Judges 16:28	יֱהֹוִה‎	Yĕhōwih		When the Tetragrammaton is preceded by Adonai, it receives the vowels from the name Elohim instead. The hataf segol does not revert to a shewa because doing so could lead to confusion with the vowels in Adonai.
Genesis 15:2	יֱהוִה‎	Yĕhwih		Just as above, this uses the vowels from Elohim, but like the second version, the dot (holam) on the first he is omitted as redundant.
1 Kings 2:26	יְהֹוִה‎	Yǝhōwih		Here, the dot (holam) on the first he is present, but the hataf segol does get reverted to a shewa.
Ezekiel 24:24	יְהוִה‎	Yǝhwih		Here, the dot (holam) on the first he is omitted, and the hataf segol gets reverted to a shewa.

ĕ is hataf segol; ǝ is the pronounced form of plain shva.

The o diacritic dot (holam) on the first he is often omitted because it plays no useful role in distinguishing between the two intended pronunciations Adonai and Elohim (which both happen to have an o vowel in the same position).

Dead Sea Scrolls

In the Dead Sea Scrolls and other Hebrew and Aramaic texts the Tetragrammaton and some other names of God in Judaism (such as El or Elohim) were sometimes written in paleo-Hebrew script, showing that they were treated specially. Most of God's names were pronounced until about the 2nd century BCE. Then, as a tradition of non-pronunciation of the names developed, alternatives for the Tetragrammaton appeared, such as Adonai, Kurios and Theos. The 4Q120, a Greek fragment of Leviticus (26:2–16) discovered in the Dead Sea scrolls (Qumran) has ιαω ("Iao"), the Greek form of the Hebrew trigrammaton YHW. The historian John the Lydian (6th century) wrote: "The Roman Varo [116–27 BCE] defining him [that is the Jewish God] says that he is called Iao in the Chaldean mysteries" (De Mensibus IV 53). Van Cooten mentions that Iao is one of the "specifically Jewish designations for God" and "the Aramaic papyri from the Jews at Elephantine show that 'Iao' is an original Jewish term".

The preserved manuscripts from Qumran show the inconsistent practice of writing the Tetragrammaton, mainly in biblical quotations: in some manuscripts is written in paleo-Hebrew script, square scripts or replaced with four dots or dashes (tetrapuncta).

The members of the Qumran community were aware of the existence of the Tetragrammaton, but this was not tantamount to granting consent for its existing use and speaking. This is evidenced not only by special treatment of the Tetragrammaton in the text, but by the recommendation recorded in the 'Rule of Association' (VI, 27): "Who will remember the most glorious name, which is above all [...]".

The table below presents all the manuscripts in which the Tetragrammaton is written in paleo-Hebrew script, in square scripts, and all the manuscripts in which the copyists have used tetrapuncta.

Copyists used the 'tetrapuncta' apparently to warn against pronouncing the name of God. In the manuscript number 4Q248 is in the form of bars.

PALEO-HEBREW	SQUARE	TETRAPUNCTA
1Q11 (1QPsb) 2–5 3 (link: [1])	2Q13 (2QJer) (link: [2])	1QS VIII 14 (link: [3])
1Q14 (1QpMic) 1–5 1, 2 (link: [4])	4Q27 (4QNumb) (link: [5])	1QIsaa XXXIII 7, XXXV 15 (link: [6])
1QpHab VI 14; X 7, 14; XI 10 (link: [7])	4Q37 (4QDeutj) (link: [8])	4Q53 (4QSamc) 13 III 7, 7 (link: [9])
1Q15 (1QpZeph) 3, 4 (link: [10])	4Q78 (4QXIIc) (link: [11])	4Q175 (4QTest) 1, 19
2Q3 (2QExodb) 2 2; 7 1; 8 3 (link: [12] [13])	4Q96 (4QPso (link: [14])	4Q176 (4QTanḥ) 1–2 i 6, 7, 9; 1–2 ii 3; 8–10 6, 8, 10 (link: [15])
3Q3 (3QLam) 1 2 (link: [16])	4Q158 (4QRPa) (link: [17])	4Q196 (4QpapToba ar) 17 i 5; 18 15 (link: [18])
4Q20 (4QExodj) 1–2 3 (link: [19])	4Q163 (4Qpap pIsac) I 19; II 6; 15–16 1; 21 9; III 3, 9; 25 7 (link: [20])	4Q248 (history of the kings of Greece) 5 (link: [21])
4Q26b (4QLevg) linia 8 (link: [22])	4QpNah (4Q169) II 10 (link: [23])	4Q306 (4QMen of People Who Err) 3 5 (link: [24])
4Q38a (4QDeutk2) 5 6 (link: [25])	4Q173 (4QpPsb) 4 2 (link: [26])	4Q382 (4QparaKings et al.) 9+11 5; 78 2
4Q57 (4QIsac) (link: [27])	4Q177 (4QCatena A) (link: [28])	4Q391 (4Qpap Pseudo-Ezechiel) 36, 52, 55, 58, 65 (link: [29])
4Q161 (4QpIsaa) 8–10 13 (link: [30])	4Q215a (4QTime of Righteousness) (link: [31])	4Q462 (4QNarrative C) 7; 12 (link: [32])
4Q165 (4QpIsae) 6 4 (link: [33])	4Q222 (4QJubg) (link: [34])	4Q524 (4QTb)) 6–13 4, 5 (link: [35])
4Q171 (4QpPsa) II 4, 12, 24; III 14, 15; IV 7, 10, 19 (link: [36])	4Q225 (4QPsJuba) (link: [37])	XḤev/SeEschat Hymn (XḤev/Se 6) 2 7
11Q2 (11QLevb) 2 2, 6, 7 (link: [38])	4Q365 (4QRPc) (link: [39])
11Q5 (11QPsa) (link: [40])	4Q377 (4QApocryphal Pentateuch B) 2 ii 3, 5 (link: [41])
	4Q382 (4Qpap paraKings) (link: [42])
	11Q6 (11QPsb) (link: [43])
	11Q7 (11QPsc) (link: [44])
	11Q19 (11QTa)
	11Q20 (11QTb) (link: [45])
	11Q11 (11QapocrPs) (link: [46])

Septuagint and other Old Greek translations

Tetragrammaton written in paleo-Hebrew script on 8HevXII

The most complete copies of the Septuagint (B, א, A), versions from fourth century onwards consistently use Κύριος ("Lord"), or Θεός ("God"), where the Hebrew has YHWH, corresponding to substituting Adonai for YHWH in reading the original, but the oldest fragments have the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew or Paleo-Hebrew characters, with the exception of P. Ryl. 458 (perhaps the oldest extant Septuagint manuscript) where there are blank spaces, leading some scholars such as Colin Henderson Roberts to believe that it contained letters, and 4Q120 that has ΙΑΩ. According to Paul E. Kahle, Françoise Dunand and Martin Rösel, in P. Ryl. 458 it is likely that the Tetragrammaton was intended to be written where these blank spaces appear. Albert Pietersma claims that P. Ryl. 458 is irrelevant in this regard, since it was only because the lacuna is too large for κς, a nomen sacrum that in any case would not be used in this Jewish manuscript, that Kahle proposed that the lacuna must have been meant for the Tetragrammaton ; the vacant space could just as well have been for the unabbreviated word κύριος.

The oldest known LXX manuscript that has the Hebrew Tetragrammaton is of the first century BCE, with the letters written in square script. A slightly later one (between 50 BCE and 50 CE) has the tetragrammon in archaic Paleo-Hebrew letters.

Of the same period as the oldest LXX manuscript with the Hebrew Tetragrammaton is the manuscript 4Q120 with the Greek trigrammaton ΙΑΩ. Patrick W. Skehan and Martin Hengel propose that the Septuagint originally had ΙΑΩ (pronounced Yaho = Aramaic יהו) and that this was altered to Aramaic/Hebrew characters and later to Paleo-Hebrew and finally was replaced by Κύριος.

Other old fragments cannot be used in this discussion because, in addition to their brevity and fragmentary condition, they include no Hebrew Bible verse containing the Tetragrammaton (i.e. 4Q119, 4Q121, 4Q122, 7Q5). 4Q126, which contains the word κύριος cannot be cited as using it for the Tetragrammaton, since its unidentified text is not necessarily biblical. In Septuagint manuscripts dating from about the third century CE onwards (e.g., P.Oxy656, P.Oxy1075 and P.Oxy1166) the Greek word Κύριος (Lord) is used rather frequently to represent the divine name יהוה (YHWH) and can be what was used when reading out representations in non-Greek characters.

In 2014, Pavlos Vasileiadis gave the following account of the various views on what was the original translation of the Tetragrammaton in the Septuagint, ending with his statement that what he called "the hard evidence" supports Rolf Furuli's thesis that the Septuagint originally had some form of Ιαω and that Κύριος was not introduced before the Common Era:

The original Greek translation of the divine name has proved to be a heavily debated subject. A constantly great amount of scholarly effort has been put in this question, especially as a result of more recent discoveries that challenged previously long-held assumptions. More specifically, W. G. von Baudissin (1929) maintained that right from its origins the LXX had rendered the Tetragrammaton by κύριος, and that in no case was this latter a mere substitute for an earlier αδωναι. Based on more recent evidence that had became [sic] available, P. Kahle (1960) supported that the Tetragrammaton written with Hebrew or Greek letters was retained in the OG and it was the Christians who later replaced it with κύριος. S. Jellicoe (1968) concurred with Kahle. H. Stegemann (1969/1978) argued that Ιαω /i.a.o/ was used in the original LXX. G. Howard (1977/1992) suggested that κύριος was not used in the pre-Christian OG. P. W. Skehan (1980) proposed that there had been a textual development concerning the divine name in this order: Ιαω, the Tetragrammaton in square Hebrew characters, the Tetragrammaton in paleo-Hebrew characters and, finally, κύριος. M. Hengel (1989) offered a similar scheme for the use of κύριος for the divine name in the LXX tradition. Evolving R. Hanhart’s position (1978/1986/1999), A. Pietersma (1984) regarded κύριος as the original Greek rendering of the Tetragrammaton in the OG text. This view was supported later by J. W. Wevers (2005) and M. Rösel (2007). Moreover, Rösel argued against the Ιαω being the original LXX rendering of the Tetragrammaton. E. Tov (1998/2004/2008), J. Joosten (2011), and A. Meyer (2014) concluded that Pietersma’s arguments are unconvincing. More particularly, Tov has supported that the original translators used a pronounceable form of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton (like Ιαω), which was later replaced by κύριος, while Greek recensions replaced it with transliterations in paleo-Hebrew or square Hebrew characters. R. Furuli (2011), after comparing the various proposals, argued that κύριος did not replace the Tetragrammaton before the Common Era and the LXX autographs included the Tetragrammaton in some form of Ιαω. Truly, the hard evidence available supports this latter thesis.

Throughout the Septuagint, as now known, the word Κύριος (Kyrios) without the definite article is used to represent the divine name, but it is uncertain whether this was the Septuagint's original rendering. Origen (Commentary on Psalms 2.2) and Jerome (Prologus Galeatus) said that in their time the best manuscripts gave not the word Κύριος but the Tetragrammaton itself written in an older form of the Hebrew characters, the paleo-Hebrew letters, not the square: "In the more accurate exemplars [of the LXX] the (divine) name is written in Hebrew characters; not, however, in the current script, but in the most ancient.}} No Jewish manuscript of the Septuagint has been found with Κύριος representing the Tetragrammaton, and it has been argued, but not widely accepted, that the use of Κύριος shows that later copies of the Septuagint were of Christian character, and even that the composition of the New Testament preceded the change to Κύριος in the Septuagint. Its consistent use of Κύριος to represent the Tetragrammaton has been called "a distinguishing mark for any Christian LXX manuscript", However, a passage in the Hebrew Tosefta, Shabbat 13:5 (written c. 300 CE), quoting Tarfon (who lived between 70 and 135 CE), says that it was permitted on the Sabbath to burn Christian works − gilyonim (gospels?) and other writings − even if they contained the names of God written in them (without specifying the form or forms in which the names of God were written − as the Aramaic or Paleo-Hebrew Tetragrammaton, as ΙΑΩ or otherwise).

In the same year as the summary by Vasileiadis of older interpretations (2014), Frank Shaw published his The Earliest Non-Mystical Jewish Use of Ιαω, in which he argues that the divine name was still articulated until the second or third century and that the use of Ιαω was by no means limited to magical or mystical formulas, but was still normal in more elevated contexts such as that exemplified by Papyrus 4Q120. Shaw describes as "inconsistent and contradictory" the arguments by Pietersma, Rösel and Perkins for the originality of κύριος and considers all theories that posit in the Septuagint a single original form of the divine name as merely based on a priori assumptions. Accordingly, he declares: "The matter of any (especially single) 'original' form of the divine name in the LXX is too complex, the evidence is too scattered and indefinite, and the various approaches offered for the issue are too simplistic" to account for the actual scribal practices (p. 158). He holds that the earliest stages of the LXX's translation were marked by diversity (p. 262), with the choice of certain divine names depending on the context in which they appear (cf. Gen 4:26; Exod 3:15; 8:22; 28:32; 32:5; and 33:19). He treats of the related blank spaces in Septuagint manuscripts and the setting of spaces around the divine name in 4Q120 and another manuscript (p. 265), and repeats that "there was no one 'original' form but different translators had different feelings, theological beliefs, motivations, and practices when it came to their handling of the name" (p. 271).

His view on these points has won the support of Didier Fontaine, Anthony R. Meyer, Bob Becking, and earlier (commenting on Shaw's 2011 dissertation on the subject) D.T. Runia.

In the list of 120 or so manuscripts and fragments of Old Greek translations (LXX, Aquila etc.) down to and including the complete texts, Robert A. Kraft indicates that one has spaces in place of the Tetragrammaton (P. Ryl. 458) and one has ΙΑΩ (4Q120) in the period before the turn of the era. Extant manuscripts containing κύριος, including the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus codices, are from the third century CE onwards.

The Tetragrammaton or something possibly associated with it (ΙΑΩ or a space) occurs in the following texts of the Septuagint:

2nd-century BCE

• Papyrus Rylands 458 – contains fragments of Deuteronomy. Has blank spaces where the copyist perhaps had to write either the Tetragrammaton or the word κύριος. It has been dated to 2nd century BCE.

1st-century BCE

• 4QpapLXXLev^b – contains fragments of the Book of Leviticus, chapters 1 to 5. In two verses: 3:12; 4:27 the Tetragrammaton of the Hebrew Bible is represented by the Greek trigrammaton ΙΑΩ. This manuscript is dated to the 1st century BCE.
• Papyrus Fouad 266b (848) – contains fragments of Deuteronomy, chapters 10 to 33, dated to 1st century BCE. The Tetragrammaton appears in square Hebrew/Aramaic script. According to a disputed view, the first copyist left a blank space marked with a dot, and another inscribed the letters.
• Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 3522 – contains parts of two verses of chapter 42 of the Book of Job and has the Tetragrammaton written in paleo-Hebrew letters. It has been dated to the 1st century BCE.

1st-century CE

• 8HevXII gr – dated to the 1st century CE, includes three fragments published separately.
  • Se2grXII (LXX^{IEJ 12}) has the Tetragrammaton in 1 place
  • 8HevXII a (LXX^{VTS 10a}) in 24 places, whole or in part.
  • 8HevXII b (LXX^{VTS 10b}) in 4 places.

1st to 2nd-century CE

• Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 5101 – contains fragments of the Book of Psalms. It has been dated between year 50 and 150 CE and it has YHWH in palaeo-Hebrew script.

3rd-century CE

• Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1007 – this manuscript in vitela form contains Genesis 2 and 3. The divine name is written with a double yodh. It has been assigned paleographically to the 3rd century.
• Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 656 – containing fragments of the Book of Genesis, chapters 14 to 27. The first copyist left blank spaces in which a second wrote Kyrios. It is dated to the late 2nd or early 3rd century CE.
• Papyrus Berlin 17213 – containing fragments of the Book of Genesis, chapter 19. Contains one blank space that may have been for the name of God, but Emanuel Tov thinks that it was to mark the end of a paragraph. It has been dated to 3rd century CE.

6th-century CE

• Taylor-Schechter 16.320 – Tetragrammaton in Hebrew, 550 – 649 CE.
• Codex Marchalianus – uses ΙΑΩ as the divine name, but in the margin represents the Tetragrammaton by the Greek letters ΠΙΠΙ. It is a 6th-century Greek manuscript.

Other translations

In copies of the Bible translated into Greek in the 2nd century CE by Symmachus and Aquila of Sinope, the Tetragrammaton occurs. The following manuscripts contain the Tetragrammaton:

3rd-century CE

• Papyrus Vindobonensis Greek 39777, the P.Vindob.G.39777 – dated to late 3rd century or beginning 4th century. It has the Tetragrammaton in "old Hebrew", not paleo-Hebrew, but "archaic letters."

5th-century CE

• AqTaylor, this manuscript of the Aquila version is dated after the middle of the 5th century, but not later than the beginning of the 6th century.
• AqBurkitt – a palimpsest manuscript of the Aquila version dated late 5th century or early 6th century.

Hexaplaric manuscripts

In the Hexapla, the Tetragrammaton is included in works by Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion, but additionally in three other anonymous Greek translations (Quinta, Sextus and Septima).

7th-century CE

• Taylor-Schechter 12.182 – a Hexapla manuscript with Tetragrammaton in Greek letters ΠΙΠΙ. It is from 7th-century.

9th-century CE

• Ambrosiano O 39 sup. – the latest Greek manuscript containing the name of God is Origen's Hexapla, transmitting among other translations the text of the Septuagint. This codex, copied from a much earlier original, comes from the late 9th century, and is stored in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana.

Sidney Jellicoe wrote that "the evidence most recently to hand is tending to confirm the testimony of Origen and Jerome, and that Kahle is right in holding that LXX texts, written by Jews for Jews, retained the divine name in Hebrew Letters (paleo-Hebrew or Aramaic) or in the Greek-letters imitative form ΠΙΠΙ, and that its replacement by Κύριος was a Christian innovation". Jellicoe draws together evidence from a great many scholars (B. J. Roberts, Baudissin, Kahle and C. H. Roberts) and various segments of the Septuagint to draw the conclusions that the absence of "Adonai" from the text suggests that the insertion of the term Kyrios was a later practice; in the Septuagint Kyrios is used to substitute YHWH; and the Tetragrammaton appeared in the original text, but Christian copyists removed it.

Eusebius and Jerome (translator of the Vulgate) used the Hexapla. Both attest to the importance of the sacred Name and that some manuscripts of Septuagint contained the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew letters. This is further affirmed by The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, which states "Recently discovered texts doubt the idea that the translators of the LXX (Septuagint) have rendered the Tetragrammaton JHWH with KYRIOS. The most ancient available manuscripts of the LXX have the Tetragrammaton written in Hebrew letters in the Greek text. This was a custom preserved by the later Hebrew translator of the Old Testament in the first centuries (after Christ)"

David Trobisch has noted that, while Christian manuscripts of the Jewish Bible use Kύριος or the nomina sacra Θς and κς (with a horizontal line above the contracted words) to represent the Tetragrammaton, manuscripts of Greek translations of the Old Testament written by Jewish scribes, such as those found in Qumran, reproduce it within the Greek text in several different ways. Some give it in either Hebrew, Aramaic or paleo-Hebrew letters. Others transliterate it in Greek characters as ΠΙΠΙ or ΙΑΩ. The fragment Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1007 is in fact difficult to identify as either Christian or Jewish, as on the barely legible recto side (in Gen 2:18) it contains the nomen sacrum ΘΣ (characteristic of Christian manuscripts) and the Tetragrammaton represented as a double yodh יי (characteristic of Jewish manuscripts).

According to Edmon Gallagher, a faculty member of Heritage Christian University, "extant Greek manuscripts from Qumran and elsewhere that are unambiguously Jewish (because of the date) also include several ways of representing the Divine Name, none of which was with κύριος, the term used everywhere in our Christian manuscripts". He concludes that there is no certainty about whether it was a Jew or a Christian who transcribed the Cairo Genizah manuscripts of the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible by Aquila (not the LXX), in which the Tetragrammaton is generally given in paleo-Hebrew letters but in one instance, where there was insufficient space at the end of a line, by κυ, the nomen sacrum rendering of the genitive case of Κύριος. E. Gallagher also "has argued convincingly that Christian scribes might have produced paleo-Hebrew Tetragrammata within their biblical manuscripts, in addition to the attested use of the forms יהוה and πιπι."

Apocrypha

In books written in Greek (e.g., Wisdom, 2 and 3 Maccabees), Κύριος takes the place of the name of God.

Patristic writings

Petrus Alphonsi's early 12th-century Tetragrammaton-Trinity diagram, rendering the name as "IEVE"

Tetragrammaton at the Fifth Chapel of the Palace of Versailles, France. This example has the vowel points of "Elohim".

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia (1910) and B.D. Eerdmans:

• Diodorus Siculus (1st century BCE) writes Ἰαῶ (Iao);
• Irenaeus (d. c. 202) reports that the Gnostics formed a compound Ἰαωθ (Iaoth) with the last syllable of Sabaoth. He also reports that the Valentinian heretics use Ἰαῶ (Iao);
• Clement of Alexandria (d. c. 215) writes Ἰαοὺ (Iaou)—see also below;
• Origen (d. c. 254), Ἰαώ (Iao);
• Porphyry (d. c. 305) according to Eusebius (died 339), Ἰευώ (Ieuo);
• Epiphanius (died 404), who was born in Palestine and spent a considerable part of his life there, gives Ἰά (Ia) and Ἰάβε (pronounced at that time /ja'vε/) and explains Ἰάβε as meaning He who was and is and always exists.
• (Pseudo-)Jerome (4th/5th century), (Tetragrammaton) can be read Iaho;
• Theodoret (d. c. 457) writes Ἰαώ (Iao); he also reports that the Samaritans say Ἰαβέ or Ἰαβαί (both pronounced at that time /ja'vε/), while the Jews say Ἀϊά (Aia). (The latter is probably not יהוה‎ but אהיה‎ Ehyeh = "I am " or "I will be", Exod. 3:14 which the Jews counted among the names of God.)
• Jacob of Edessa (died 708), Jehjeh;
• Jerome (died 420) speaks of certain Greek writers who misunderstood the Hebrew letters יהוה‎ (read right-to-left) as the Greek letters ΠΙΠΙ (read left-to-right), thus changing YHWH to pipi.

A window featuring the Hebrew Tetragrammaton יְהֹוָה‎ in Karlskirche, Vienna

Peshitta

The Peshitta (Syriac translation), probably in the second century, uses the word "Lord" (ܡܳܪܝܳܐ, pronounced moryo) for the Tetragrammaton.

Vulgate

The Vulgate (Latin translation) made from the Hebrew in the 4th century CE, uses the word Dominus ("Lord"), a translation of the Hebrew word Adonai, for the Tetragrammaton.

The Vulgate translation, though made not from the Septuagint but from the Hebrew text, did not depart from the practice used in the Septuagint. Thus, for most of its history, Christianity's translations of the Scriptures have used equivalents of Adonai to represent the Tetragrammaton. Only at about the beginning of the 16th century did Christian translations of the Bible appear with transliterations of the Tetragrammaton.

Usage in religious traditions

Judaism

Main article: Genizah

Especially due to the existence of the Mesha Stele, the Jahwist tradition found in Exod. 3:15, and ancient Hebrew and Greek texts, biblical scholars widely hold that the Tetragrammaton and other names of God were spoken by the ancient Israelites and their neighbours.

Some time after the destruction of Solomon's Temple, the spoken use of God's name as it was written ceased among the people, even though knowledge of the pronunciation was perpetuated in rabbinic schools. The Talmud relays this occurred after the death of Simeon the Just (either Simon I or his great-great-grandson Simon II). Philo calls it ineffable, and says that it is lawful for those only whose ears and tongues are purified by wisdom to hear and utter it in a holy place (that is, for priests in the Temple). In another passage, commenting on Lev. xxiv. 15 seq.: "If any one, I do not say should blaspheme against the Lord of men and gods, but should even dare to utter his name unseasonably, let him expect the penalty of death."

Rabbinic sources suggest that the name of God was pronounced only once a year, by the high priest, on the Day of Atonement. Others, including Maimonides, claim that the name was pronounced daily in the liturgy of the Temple in the priestly benediction of worshippers (Num. vi. 27), after the daily sacrifice; in the synagogues, though, a substitute (probably "Adonai") was used. According to the Talmud, in the last generations before the fall of Jerusalem, the name was pronounced in a low tone so that the sounds were lost in the chant of the priests. Since the destruction of Second Temple of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the Tetragrammaton has no longer been pronounced in the liturgy. However the pronunciation was still known in Babylonia in the latter part of the 4th century.

Spoken prohibitions

The vehemence with which the utterance of the name is denounced in the Mishnah suggests that use of Yahweh was unacceptable in rabbinical Judaism. "He who pronounces the Name with its own letters has no part in the world to come!" Such is the prohibition of pronouncing the Name as written that it is sometimes called the "Ineffable", "Unutterable", or "Distinctive Name".

Halakha prescribes that whereas the Name is written "yodh he waw he", it is only to be pronounced "Adonai"; and the latter name too is regarded as a holy name, and is only to be pronounced in prayer. Thus when someone wants to refer in third person to either the written or spoken Name, the term HaShem "the Name" is used; and this handle itself can also be used in prayer. The Masoretes added vowel points (niqqud) and cantillation marks to the manuscripts to indicate vowel usage and for use in ritual chanting of readings from the Bible in Jewish prayer in synagogues. To יהוה‎ they added the vowels for "Adonai" ("My Lord"), the word to use when the text was read. While "HaShem" is the most common way to reference "the Name", the terms "HaMaqom" (lit. "The Place", i.e. "The Omnipresent") and "Raḥmana" (Aramaic, "Merciful") are used in the mishna and gemara, still used in the phrases "HaMaqom y'naḥem ethḥem" ("may The Omnipresent console you"), the traditional phrase used in sitting Shiva and "Raḥmana l'tzlan" ("may the Merciful save us" i.e. "God forbid").

Written prohibitions

The written Tetragrammaton, as well as six other names of God, must be treated with special sanctity. They cannot be disposed of regularly, lest they be desecrated, but are usually put in long term storage or buried in Jewish cemeteries in order to retire them from use. Similarly, writing the Tetragrammaton (or these other names) unnecessarily is prohibited, so as to avoid having them treated disrespectfully, an action that is forbidden. To guard the sanctity of the Name, sometimes a letter is substituted by a different letter in writing (e.g. יקוק), or the letters are separated by one or more hyphens, a practice applied also to the English name "God", which Jews commonly write as "G-d". Most Jewish authorities say that this practice is not obligatory for the English name.

Kabbalah

See also: Kabbalah and Hasidic philosophy

Kabbalistic tradition holds that the correct pronunciation is known to a select few people in each generation, it is not generally known what this pronunciation is. There are two main schools of Kabbalah arising in 13th century Spain. These are called Theosophic Kabbalah represented by Rabbi Moshe De leon and the Zohar, and the Kabbalah of Names or Prophetic Kabbalah whose main representative is Rabbi Abraham Abulafia of Saragossa. Rabbi Abulafia wrote many wisdom books and prophetic books where the name is used for meditation purposes from 1271 onwards. Abulafia put a lot of attention on Exodus 15 and the Songs of Moses. In this song it says "Yehovah is a Man of War, Yehovah is his name". For Abulafia the goal of propecy was for a man to come to the level of prophecy and be called "Yehovah a man of war". Abulafia also used the tetragrammaton in a spiritual war against his spiritual enemies. For example, he prophesied in his book "The Sign", Therefore, thus said YHWH, the God of Israel: Have no fear of the enemy" (See Hylton, A The Prophetic Jew Abraham Abulafia, 2015).

Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, says that the tree of the Tetragrammaton "unfolds" in accordance with the intrinsic nature of its letters, "in the same order in which they appear in the Name, in the mystery of ten and the mystery of four." Namely, the upper cusp of the Yod is Arich Anpin and the main body of Yod is and Abba; the first Hei is Imma; the Vav is Ze`ir Anpin and the second Hei is Nukvah. It unfolds in this aforementioned order and "in the mystery of the four expansions" that are constituted by the following various spellings of the letters:

ע"ב/`AV : יו"ד ה"י וי"ו ה"י, so called "`AV" according to its gematria value ע"ב=70+2=72.

ס"ג/SaG: יו"ד ה"י וא"ו ה"י, gematria 63.

מ"ה/MaH: יו"ד ה"א וא"ו ה"א, gematria 45.

ב"ן/BaN: יו"ד ה"ה ו"ו ה"ה, gematria 52.

Luzzatto summarises, "In sum, all that exists is founded on the mystery of this Name and upon the mystery of these letters of which it consists. This means that all the different orders and laws are all drawn after and come under the order of these four letters. This is not one particular pathway but rather the general path, which includes everything that exists in the Sefirot in all their details and which brings everything under its order."

Another parallel is drawn between the four letters of the Tetragrammaton and the Four Worlds: the י is associated with Atziluth, the first ה with Beri'ah, the ו with Yetzirah, and final ה with Assiah.

A tetractys of the letters of the Tetragrammaton adds up to 72 by gematria.

There are some who believe that the tetractys and its mysteries influenced the early kabbalists. A Hebrew tetractys in a similar way has the letters of the Tetragrammaton (the four lettered name of God in Hebrew scripture) inscribed on the ten positions of the tetractys, from right to left. It has been argued that the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, with its ten spheres of emanation, is in some way connected to the tetractys, but its form is not that of a triangle. The occult writer Dion Fortune says:

"The point is assigned to Kether;

the line to Chokmah;

the two-dimensional plane to Binah;

consequently the three-dimensional solid naturally falls to Chesed."

(The first three-dimensional solid is the tetrahedron.)

The relationship between geometrical shapes and the first four Sephirot is analogous to the geometrical correlations in tetractys, shown above under Pythagorean Symbol, and unveils the relevance of the Tree of Life with the tetractys.

Samaritans

The Samaritans shared the taboo of the Jews about the utterance of the name, and there is no evidence that its pronunciation was common Samaritan practice. However Sanhedrin 10:1 includes the comment of Rabbi Mana II, "for example those Kutim who take an oath" would also have no share in the world to come, which suggests that Mana thought some Samaritans used the name in making oaths. (Their priests have preserved a liturgical pronunciation "Yahwe" or "Yahwa" to the present day.) As with Jews, the use of Shema (שמא "the Name") remains the everyday usage of the name among Samaritans, akin to Hebrew "the Name" (Hebrew השם "HaShem").

Christianity

Tetragrammaton by Francisco Goya: "The Name of God", YHWH in triangle, detail from fresco Adoration of the Name of God, 1772

The Tetragrammaton as represented in stained glass in an 1868 Episcopal Church in Iowa

It is assumed that early Jewish Christians inherited from Jews the practice of reading "Lord" where the Tetragrammaton appeared in the Hebrew text, or where a Tetragrammaton may have been marked in a Greek text. Gentile Christians, primarily non-Hebrew speaking and using Greek texts, may have read "Lord" as it occurred in the Greek text of the New Testament and their copies of the Greek Old Testament. This practice continued into the Latin Vulgate where "Lord" represented the Tetragrammaton in the Latin text. In Petrus Alphonsi's Tetragrammaton-Trinity diagram, the name is written as "Ieve". At the Reformation, the Luther Bible used "Jehova" in the German text of Luther's Old Testament.

Christian translations

As mentioned above, the Septuagint (Greek translation), the Vulgate (Latin translation), and the Peshitta (Syriac translation) use the word "Lord" (κύριος, kyrios, dominus, and ܡܳܪܝܳܐ, moryo respectively).

Use of the Septuagint by Christians in polemics with Jews led to its abandonment by the latter, making it a specifically Christian text. From it Christians made translations into Coptic, Arabic, Slavonic and other languages used in Oriental Orthodoxy and the Eastern Orthodox Church, whose liturgies and doctrinal declarations are largely a cento of texts from the Septuagint, which they consider to be inspired at least as much as the Masoretic Text. Within the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Greek text remains the norm for texts in all languages, with particular reference to the wording used in prayers.

The Septuagint, with its use of Κύριος to represent the Tetragrammaton, was the basis also for Christian translations associated with the West, in particular the Vetus Itala, which survives in some parts of the liturgy of the Latin Church, and the Gothic Bible.

Christian translations of the Bible into English commonly use "LORD" in place of the Tetragrammaton in most passages, often in small capitals (or in all caps), so as to distinguish it from other words translated as "Lord".

Eastern Orthodoxy

The Eastern Orthodox Church considers the Septuagint text, which uses Κύριος (Lord), to be the authoritative text of the Old Testament, and in its liturgical books and prayers it uses Κύριος in place of the Tetragrammaton in texts derived from the Bible.

Catholicism

The Tetragrammaton on the Tympanum of the Roman Catholic Basilica of St. Louis, King of France in Missouri

In the Catholic Church, the first edition of the official Vatican Nova Vulgata Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio, editio typica, published in 1979, used the traditional Dominus when rendering the Tetragrammaton in the overwhelming majority of places where it appears; however, it also used the form Iahveh for rendering the Tetragrammaton in three known places:

• Exodus 3:15
• Exodus 15:3
• Exodus 17:15

In the second edition of the Nova Vulgata Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio, editio typica altera, published in 1986, these few occurrences of the form Iahveh were replaced with Dominus, in keeping with the long-standing Catholic tradition of avoiding direct usage of the Ineffable Name.

On 29 June 2008, the Holy See reacted to the then still recent practice of pronouncing, within Catholic liturgy, the name of God represented by the Tetragrammaton. As examples of such vocalisation it mentioned "Yahweh" and "Yehovah". The early Christians, it said, followed the example of the Septuagint in replacing the name of God with "the Lord", a practice with important theological implications for their use of "the Lord" in reference to Jesus, as in Philippians 2:9-11 and other New Testament texts. It therefore directed that, "in liturgical celebrations, in songs and prayers the name of God in the form of the Tetragrammaton YHWH is neither to be used or pronounced"; and that translations of Biblical texts for liturgical use are to follow the practice of the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, replacing the divine name with "the Lord" or, in some contexts, "God". The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops welcomed this instruction, adding that it "provides also an opportunity to offer catechesis for the faithful as an encouragement to show reverence for the Name of God in daily life, emphasizing the power of language as an act of devotion and worship".

See also

• Allah (Name of God in Islam which consists of four Arabic letters)
• I Am that I Am
• Names of God